NoiseAway.com

UPDATE: I checked on this blog recently because I wanted to make sure the links still work and it seems that Noiseaway now redirects to another website, which sells another supposed "cure" for tinnitus.

In my earlier blog about Tinnitus Terminator, I mentioned that one of the sites had been closed and was now being redirected to a new site, called NoiseAway.com which was also registered anonymously out of Panama.

Since there was no content on NoiseAway.com when I first noticed it, I decided to put-off doing a blog about it until it actually amounted to something.

Recently, the people behind NoiseAway.com have built the site up with some content for me to examine, so I can get started.

The main page presents us with a video, supposedly narrated by a man calling himself "David Smith" and I lifted this picture from the video.


Running the picture through various reverse image searches yielded nothing. So, it could be David Smith or it could be someone else whose picture the site is using. There's no way to tell for sure. A Spokeo search found hundreds of people named "David Smith" and "Julie Smith" living in the state of Washington, so there's no way to verify that this particular couple even exists.

The video on the NoiseAway website is actually linked back to a YouTube video and you can see it here. The video cannot be found from a YouTube search, you can only access it by going to NoiseAway.com and back-clicking to the video. They couldn't make the video private because no one would be able to watch it, aside from the people running the channel, so they made it Unlisted. Since the video was uploaded on 11 June 2017, it has been viewed about 327 times. The previous edition of the video was uploaded on  22 December 2016 and was viewed over two thousand times before the newer one was embedded into the site. The voice acting is quite good, actually. Better, in fact, than I think the average person is capable of without a lot of practice and training. So, either "David Smith" is a really good communicator or the voice actor is a professional. It's interesting how the YouTube video does not allow viewers to post in the Comments section.

It's also rather cowardly, in my opinion.

The entire script of the video can be found here. Looking through the script, I noticed that certain words and phrases were written in all caps, which is an old trick used in commercial copyrighting to indicate where the person recording the commercial should use extra emphasis when speaking. You may also notice in the script where it says "(pause for five seconds)" and that should tell you that the person speaking in the video is less likely to really be "David Smith" and more likely to be a paid voice actor.

The site does provide contact information, which includes a physical address. Let's have a look:

The phone number is toll-free, which is convenient for people who don't live in Seattle to call without having to pay long-distance charges. However, the lack of a Seattle area code means that the person receiving the call might not actually be in Seattle. They could be anywhere. A simple Google search shows that the number (800) 973-7403 has been associated with AAA Consulting, Inc which is a marketing company in Atlanta, Georgia. It's possible that AAA Consulting Inc no longer exists and Noise Away is simply using their old number. It's worth mentioning that Atlanta, GA is in the Eastern Standard Timezone (EST), while Seattle, WA is in the Pacific Standard Timezone (PST). The reason it's worth mentioning is that Noise Away gives its business hours as Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (EST) which is better for the recipient if they're in Atlanta to take the call. Why aren't their business hours 9am to 5pm (PST)? When it's 9am EST, it's 6am in Seattle. That's pretty early in the morning to take a call, David.

The physical address is really in Seattle. However, another Google search reveals that 113 Cherry St. #28192, Seattle, WA 98104 is just a mail drop run by Earth Class Mail.

As far as Noise Away's sales pitch, it's the same old story of using sound therapy to help people cope with tinnitus. As I have repeatedly stated, sound therapy has been used to help people living with tinnitus for years. Since David never informs about his own educational and occupational background, he seems to expect us to believe that some random John Q Citizen came up with the perfect system to treat tinnitus after reading some medical studies and doing some library work.

I found it to be particularly self-serving when "David" kept talking about how he wanted to keep the price as low as possible so that as many people as possible could be helped, while he was also able to make a living. That's like people who make counterfeit Rolex watches saying that they want to make their watches as cheap as possible so that more people would be able to know the time. If you look at other supposed "tinnitus cures", the asking price for NoiseAway is about the same.

Glancing at the studies linked on the home page, it didn't reveal any new information to me. I've known about sound therapy for a long time and use it at times when my tinnitus gets a bit too loud. But, there are so many studies on tinnitus, it would take years to read them all and most of the information would be useless to a layman, since scientific studies aren't written and published for the common citizen, but for other professional researchers. Again, David never explains how Noise Away is validated by the studies he cites.

Like every other supposed "cure" or "treatment" for tinnitus that I have blogged about, NoiseAway also demonizes the pharmaceutical industry. Here's a quote:

So if I was able to do this, to control my tinnitus and get my old life back, using a technology whose success is WELL documented in science journals, how come this solution wasn't all over the news? How come doctors never bring it up, and instead they push Prednisone, surgeries, and other expensive and sometimes painful remedies? I felt like the public was getting ripped off BIGTIME. I mean, it always made sense to me, if you take your car to a mechanic, you may end up with an expensive, INCOMPLETE solution, so that you keep coming back for "maintenance".

But this isn't a CAR we're talking about, we're talking about millions of lives around the world being CRIPPLED by tinnitus! Peoples lives are being RUINED, and governments and pharmaceutical companies keep peddling the same EXPENSIVE solutions that don't work, so tinnitus sufferers can keep coming back for MORE, spending MORE money, and caught in a VICIOUS cycle with no end in sight! I could barely contain my anger, and if you're listening to this right now and don't remember anything else, REMEMBER THIS, your tinnitus is NOT your fault.

I bottled up this anger, and I felt like I was ready to take on the pharmaceutical CARTEL, but I still needed to get a job and start bringing in some money to help my wife, who was now the only one with any income. We had savings, but I wasn't sure how my wife would feel about me going on this journey without some stable income.

What drugs may be prescribed to tinnitus sufferers are typically anti-depressants to help them deal with stress. No drugs are prescribed for the condition itself. As far as prednisone, it's a corticosteroid used to treat certain inflammatory or autoimmune diseases and in higher doses is used to treat certain types of cancer. It is not prescribed to treat tinnitus. In fact, I have to repeat myself by stating that there are no drugs or surgeries prescribed to treat tinnitus.So, "Big Pharma" is not getting rich off of it!

Aside from a couple of people in the video whose messages David presents as telling him how great his recording are and how their lives have improved, no solid evidence of Noise Away's efficacy exists. It may work or it may not, we have no way of knowing it without spending nearly $70 to buy it and find out for ourselves. While Noise Away offers a 60 day money back guarantee, we also have no way to know if they'd keep their promise to return the money. They seem to have gone to great lengths to obscure themselves and it's a great leap of faith to trust people who do that sort of thing.

So far, Noise Away has little Internet Presence to speak of. I haven't seen any mention of them on Twitter or in the wider YouTube community, unlike Tinnitus Remedy, Tinnitus Terminator or Tinnitus Miracle. It's a possibility that they are working at the moment on creating a viral marketing campaign to cover social media, but only time will tell.

UPDATE: They used to have a Facebook page for Noise Away, but that page has been deleted.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that whoever is/was behind Noise Away has given-up and moved on to other things.

A Final Word

I'll keep updating this blog as new information comes my way.

If you have tinnitus and you need someone to talk to, you can turn to the American Tinnitus Association for more information about the condition and they'll put you in-touch with support groups in your area. You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

I'm a member of the online forum, TinnitusTalk. I advise you to join (it's free) and you can talk with other people who've been living with tinnitus. They keep up with the latest research and share their own methods of coping with the condition. They have a YouTube channel, a Twitter account and a Facebook page.


Duane Browning